Triple S

Shelburne Shaelyn Shawl. Shelburne commemorates the Vermont trip; Shaelyn being the pattern, written by Leila Raabe and obviously, Shawl because it is. Triple S.

Knitting on this shawl commenced a week before we left and then got tons of attention during the long trip up and back, along with hotel tv knitting time. I bound off somewhere around Waterbury CT on our way home. Very very pleased with this project.

As I got further into it I couldn't shake the vision of having a large shawl to wrap around my shoulders on those early Sunday mornings when I venture downstairs to make the coffee and the house is still a bit chilly. That vision was so persistent I had to add a full pattern repeat.

This yarn percolated up from the stash (!), having been purchased two years ago at Rhinebeck. Swift River Farm Prescott, a blend of natural color Shetland with 5% Bombyx silk. Yummy stuff and very earthy. It felt like hand spun in many ways. And speaking of hand spun, I pulled out some very early pink 2 ply yarn and used it as trim. Very very pleased with this project.

The entire project took about a week. The pattern is well written, versatile and easy to memorize. It lends itself to variation, as you can see here and here. There are also some beautiful ones over on Ravelry using single colors. A perfect pattern to use for hand spun, too. I'd definitely knit this one again.

There's something about the combined colors that is reminiscent of earlier times. Being at the Shelburne and seeing the folk art and craft cemented the idea to use the pink for trim. It was a "maybe" when I threw it in the carry along bag. By the end of the weekend I realized it was a prescient move. Very very pleased with this project.

ETA: Wow, I must be tired or something. I meant to make note when I was writing earlier - the initial germ of idea to add a contrast border came from all the beautiful shawls brokeknits has made. Her wild bright color edgings really resonated with me. Thanks, Katie!